Malek
* Malek is one of the antagonists from the Legacy of Kain video game series, appearing as a boss character in Blood Omen: Legacy of Kain and as a minor antagonist in the cutscenes of Soul Reaver 2. Malek was the Guardian of Conflict, making him one of the members of the Circle of Nine, a cadre of mystics whith a spiritual connection to the Pillars of Nosgoth. Unlike his fellow guardians, however, he was merely their protector and pawn given the guardians' corrupt nature, and as such Malek was forced to serve them without any objections. He also served as the leader of the Sarafan Brotherhood, a monastic organization of vampire hunters that had eradicated the Ancient Vampires, who accted as the orignal Pillar Guardians, thus serving the corrupt human guardians further. Do to his ties with the likes of Moebius (the Guardian of the Pillar of Time) and Mortanius (the Guardian of the Pillar of Death), Malek came into conflict against the vampire Kain (the Guardian of the Pillar of Balance) and Vorador, the very first human vampire. Malek was voiced by Neil Ross, who also voiced the Norman Osborn/Green Goblin in the 90s Spider-Man: The Animated Series. Story Soul Reaver 2 / Blood Omen intro Malek was the protector of the Circle of Nine, sworn to protect the lives of it's members at all costs. However, he was ignorant of the fact that he himself was a member of the Circle, being the guardian of the Pillar of Conflict. Do to his effectiveness as a warrior, as well as his prolongued life-span (the results of his connection to the Pillars), he became the leader of the Sarafan Order. The Order was created to hunt down all vampires of Nosgoth, specifficaly the Ancient Vampires who had created the Pillars. The Sarafan were sponsored and given missions by Moebius, who also accted as Malek's handler. Although the Sarafan had managed to exterminate most of the old vampires, Janos Audron, the secret Tenth Guardian, had elluded them by secluding himself in a mountain aerie. But his escape was ultimatelly breached thanks to Moebius's power of predicting future events. Raziel, one of the Sarafan, had been turned into a vampire by Kain in the distant future, and later became a soul devouring revenant after being destroyed by Dumah and Turel. The wraith Raziel travelled through time back to the days of the Sarafan in order to meet with Janos and discover the purpose of the Soul Reaver, a phantom sword attached to his own soul. Moebius had predicted these events and as such told Malek and the other Sarafan to follow the wraith, thus gaining entrance into Janos's refuge. Malek did not personally kill Janos, instead relying on his second-in-command, Raziel, and the other commanders: Turel, Dumah, Zephon and Melchiah. Rahab was also abscent. After the death of Janos Audron, the greatest of vampires, at the hands of the Sarafan Inquisitor Raziel, the vampire Vorador decided to take revenge on the Circle. At the same time the wraith Raziel went to the Sarafan Stronghold as well, also seeking revenge and to recover Janos's heart in order to ressurect him, but also to retrieve the physical Reaver blade. As Raziel enters a room where the Reaver blade was being kept, he is held back by Malek and Moebius. Malek notices that the Circle is being attacked, but Moebius holds him, claiming that Raziel was the real danger. The two leave Raziel behind, and Malek rushes to the keep's inner sanctum, in an effort to help the Circle, but arrives there too late. Vorador had successfuly murdered six of the Circle's members. Vorador knocks the paladin, but Malek gets up fast and fights the vampire. Proving to be a match against him, Vorador uses a spell to paralyze Malek and leaves him behind. As a punishment for his failure, the necromancer Mortanius then fuses Malek's soul with his armor, condemning him to protect the Circle for all eternity. The other Sarafan Inquisitors were also slain by Raziel after aquiring the Reaver. With the Sarafan commanders all dead the order continued to serve Moebius as his personal army, but failed at being as effective during the inquisitors's reign. The Order would later be abolished, but their memory remained for over 500 years. Their Stronghold was repurpossed as the headquarters of yet another order of vampire hunters, also under Moebius's control. The Inquisitors were martyred, with a room dedicating to their memory with murals depicting each member, sans Malek and Raziel who were commemorated with statues do to their higher status. Blood Omen The story takes place four 470 years after the fall of the Sarafan. Following the corruption of the Circle, Malek is corrupted as well by Nupraptor's attack. 30 years later, as the vampire Kain goes after Nupraptor in his retreat, Malek appears to stop Kain, but Nupraptor dismisses him. After Kain kills Nupraptor, he sees that he will have to face Malek if he is to kill all other members of the Circle. Kain travels to Malek's Bastion, which is located high up a mountain, in a place completely devoid of life. Kain traverses the bastion while fighting the many magical armors on the way, facing the paladin in the end. The two are evenly matched, but Kain's attacks do little to no harm against Malek, who regenerates after each attack. Kain, unable to recover due to the lack of blood in the place, is forced to retreat, which makes Malek go nuts, sending a shockwave that disintegrates everything in it's path after Kain, forcing him to hasten his run. Later on, when Kain goes to the Dark Eden, he finds three guardians, Bane, DeJoule and Anacrothe, reunited at the place. Anacrothe runs away and summons Malek, so Kain responds by summoning Vorador. Malek gets really angry at the sight of Vorador, deciding to fight Vorador instead of Kain. As Kain gives chase after Bane and DeJoule, Malek fights Vorador. This time, Vorador has a hard time fighting Malek, but he eventually defeats the paladin, leaving his lifeless armor behind for Kain. Sould Reaver 200 years after the events of Blood Omen, Kain broke into the mausoleum of the Sarafan and ressurects Raziel, Turel, Dumah, Rahab, Zephon and Melchiah as his vampire warlords. Malek is excluded from the vampire's plan since his body had been destroyed long before Kain had ever even been born. His cript was a cenotaph on account that there was no body left to inter. Defiance The events in this game switch between the age when the Sarafan opperated and the events in Blood Omen. And although Malek does not physically appear, his statue, located in the inner courtyard of the Sarafan Stronghold, is part of a puzzle which Kain must solve in order to obtain one of the fragments of the Balance Emblem. Powers and Abilities Conflict Guardian Abilities: Because of his status as one of the Guardians of the Pillars of Nosgoth, Malek was endowed with supernatural abilities such as longevity, an ageless appearance and intrinsic mystical powers. He did not age past the age of his physical prime and lived for hundreds of years. This did not meant that he was invulnerable by any sense, since Guardians were obligated to eventually perish so as for new Guardians to take their place, and therefore Malek could be killed through both conventional (murder, animal attacks, accidents and disease) and unconventional means (magical attacks).As a Conflict Guardian; he were charged with presiding over the precepts of change and upheaval. Abilities: Draws energy from the battle: The ability of the Pillar of Conflict allows the guardian to "Draw energy from the battle".Which basically gives him infinite energy / stamina since while he or others fight around, he absorbs energy. Emotional manipulation: Can inspire hate among the enemies, causing them to attack each other and can make a spell that cause calm . Summon: '''Can summon alies to the battle,like Shades (special type of shadows) '''Ofensive and Defensive magic: The guardian can cast magic to fight like, energy projection (small projectiles or walls of energy) and manipulate fire. Martial Training and Tactical Thinking: His attachment to the Pillar of Conflict gave Malek the power to become the greatest fighter and warrior in all of Nosgoth. He had benefitted from inhanced physical strength, stamina, endurance, reflexes and agility. Even with his body covered entirely in armour he could perform a back flip and challenge Vorador, an immensly powerful vampire, on even grounds. Malek excelled in close-quarters combat, mastering both the spear as well as sword and shield. As the leader of the Order, Malek proved himself to be a gifted strategist and tactitioner, not to mention a valuable vampire hunter. Under his leadership the Sarafan army brought about the extinction of the Ancient Vampires and had almost managed to exterminate the human vampires. However, given Moebius's involvement in the Order, it is likely that some of Malek's plans had been orchestrated by the Time-Streamer. Wraith Abilities: After having his soul removed from its body and then placed inside a suit of armour, Malek became completely invulnerable to injury. Unable to feel pain, suffer from injuries or dismemberment and not recquiring to eat, drink or sleep, Malek had became close to unstopable in battle. With the addition of his previous abilities as both Pillar Guardian and master warrior he proved to be the better warrior than Kain. Vorador, on the other hand, was able to ultimately defeat Malek after having destroyed his armour in his wolf form. This undead form did not make Malek in any way resistent to other forms of attack. Despite not having any sensory organs or even a brain to coordinate them, he could be disoriented by Kain's sword swings. When Nupraptor's insanity had been transmitted to the other guardians, Malek's incorporial form wasn't spared from the attack and he to fell into insanity. As in-game information describes it: "The Pillars reflected the mental state of their servants, and as the minds of the Circle degenerated and descended farther into dementia, the Pillars crumbled", including the Pillar of Conflict. Background Information *"Malek" is a variant of the Arabic name "Malik", which translates as "king", "ruler" or "chieften", thus describing the character's position as commander of the Sarafan Brotherhood. While the other six Sarafan Inquisitors all had names based off of the Jewish Bible, Malek was the possible sole exception to the rule. However, in Islamic Mythology there is a fallen angel by the name of Malik, who guards Hell. *During the character's development, Malek was initially given the French name of Guillaume, a derivative of Willhelm, which in tern is comprised out of the Germanic root words "will", meaning "desire", and "helm", as in "helmet/protection/defence". The English variant of 'William '''was later given as the true name of William the Just/Nemesis, another villain in ''Blood Omen. *During one of the cutscenes of Soul Reaver 2, while Malek and Moebius were keeping Raziel distracted, Moebius openly refers to Raziel by his name, but Malek showed no confussion over this. There is no explanation as to why Malek did not point out the fact that the wraith shared the same name with one of his subordinates, however it is probable that Moebius had duped Malek to some capacity given Malek's servitude to the Circle and Moebius's scheeming nature. *Despite being a master swordsman Malek never demonstrated his skill with a sword within any of his appearances. Only the statue located in the Sarafan Courtyard portrays Malek using such a weapon. However, early sketches of Blood Omen characters illustrate Malek battleing Vorador with a sword. Malek would have likely had been portrayed using a sword and a shield, but the developers opted instead to animate the character wielding a spear only. Videos Category:Legacy of Kain Villains Category:Video Game Villains Category:Game Bosses Category:Fighters Category:Pawns Category:Immortals Category:Dark Knights Category:Deceased Category:Lawful Neutral Category:Evil Vs. Evil Category:Damned Souls Category:Xenophobes Category:Delusional Category:Vengeful Category:Noncorporeal Category:Scapegoat Category:Fallen Heroes Category:Tragic